The Kingdom of Chen was a fiefdom granted to Liu Xian, the second son of the Emperor Ming of Han. Liu Chong, son of Liu Cheng, was a great-grandson of Liu Xian. Liu Chong was described to be an energetic character who was skilled with the crossbow, even authoring a treatise on the subject, Nushe Bifa. In 173, Liu Chong and his former chancellor Wei Yin were accused by the new Chen chancellor Shi Qian for inappropriately making sacrifices to deities seeking for fortunes beyond their ranks. This was impiety, the most serious of crimes under the Han dynasty and tantamount to treason. Both Wei Yin and his accuser Shi Qian were brought to the capital of Luoyang in cage-carts for questioning. The eunuch Wang Fu presided over the investigations, and found that while the ceremonies made to Huang–Lao had been improper, there were no grounds for charges of impiety against Liu Chong and Wei Yin. Shi Qian had thus falsely accused his king and was himself guilty of impiety, and in the end both Shi Qian and Wei Yin were executed. Emperor Ling, having just exterminated the family of Liu Kui the Prince of Bohai on similar charges, closed the case against Liu Chong in order to avoid more bloodshed in the imperial household. When the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out in 184, many of Liu Chong's peers were chased out of their fiefs, but Liu Chong raised a force of several thousand archers and fortified himself in his capital. His formidable reputation kept the populace in line, and the Chen state was unscathed by the rebellion. In 190, when a coalition was being formed against the warlordDong Zhuo who had taken control of the imperial court, Liu Chong rallied troops in support of the coalition and styled himself the General who Supports the Han. He moved his troops north to Yangxia commandery to join the anti-Dong Zhuo blockade, but as the coalition fell apart and its leaders began to fight amongst themselves, Liu Chong returned to Chen. Under the leadership of Liu Chong and his chancellor Luo Jun, the kingdom of Chen became an oasis of peace and prosperity as China descended into civil war, taking in over a hundred thousand refugees from neighbouring territories. In 197, Yuan Shu declared himself emperor in Shouchun, south of Chen across the Huai River. This audacious action made him a target of the other warlords. After being defeated by the forces of Lü Bu, Yuan Shu could not feed his army and requested supplies from the Chen fief. However, he was rebuffed by Luo Jun, and Yuan Shu responded by sending an assassin to kill both Luo Jun and Liu Chong. With the two leading figures dead, the kingdom of Chen fell into ruin.
